The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory uses a hot press to make spinel into conformable optics, like this flat sheet. "Ultimately, we're going to hand it over to industry," says Dr. Jas Sanghera, who leads the research, "so it has to be a scalable process." Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory/Jamie Hartman

Labor and materials haven’t appreciated this year through April, according to market analyst IHS....

The Waterfront, a 128-unit wood-based residential development in Stavanger, Norway, designed by AART architects and Kraftvaerk for client Kruse-Smith. This first phase was completed last July; a second phase is under construction. More than 80 firms competed for the project. Photo courtesy AART Architects

Two instructors and a doctoral student of the Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology at Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea, make up the team behind the discovery. Photo: Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology/Wikimedia Commons